A maiden half-century for the season from Stan Gaynor and five-wicket haul from Callum Hayne has Mornington on the verge of first innings points in their clash with Kookaburras.
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Mornington skipper Sam Lumby was “stoked” with the position his side finished the first day with Kookaburras 5-36 in reply to their 144.
“Absolutely stoked.
“We knew if we could get 150 that would be enough. That’s a pretty good score on Wolesely,” he said.
Gaynor, who grew up in Moree and moved to Gunnedah at the start of last season for work, was the linchpin of the innings and notched his best score for the season with a well-compiled 58.
“It’s been a bit scratchy to start off just getting some 10’s and 20s and not going on with it, but slowly and surely starting to get a bit more used to batting again and it’s starting to show a bit,” he said.
“But still it would have been nice to keep going on a bit more.”
It wasn’t easy batting, Gaynor paying credit to the Kookaburras bowlers.
“The Kookaburras, their senior bowlers know where to put it consistently. They tie you down and they bowl in good spots where you can’t get them away,” he said.
He had to be patient, which was the big difference between Saturday and his previous knocks, the opener conceding he has probably been a bit guilty of when he gets that start wanting to go on with it too quickly.
“There’s always one ball an over you can put away so you’ve just got to wait for that. It was probably a bit slower than we might have liked in the middle but that’s just the way it is and again that’s down to Kookaburras bowling well,” he said.
Rob Anderson, playing his first game for over 20 years also chipped in with 25, Lumby 16, and Hayne 14.
Lumby said the plan going out to bowl was to “get [Cameron] Milne out early”.
“We knew we had to get him. We also knew Shane (Riordan) would be pretty hard to get out.”
Milne was their top-scorer with 16, his dismissal sparking a flurry of late wickets with Kookaburras losing 4-6.
Hayne was the catalyst and finished with 5-8.
“He’s pretty quick and he swings the ball in,” Lumby said, adding that he was glad he wasn’t facing him with the inswing he was getting.
He felt as a unit it was the best they’ve bowled all season.
“5-36 in 17 overs is pretty impressive,” he said.
Milne said it was “one of those afternoons where nothing went right” in their batting, but wasn’t taking anything away from Mornington’s effort.
“They bowled very well,” he said.
Earlier Ollie Thomas, James McGowan, Luke Ellis and Nathan Bendall all picked up two wickets.
“They batted well to get what they did,” he said.
“Stan batted very, very well.”
“We just couldn’t get the clumps of wickets.”
